"Naturally. But if you kept on the trot with an object, they wouldn't think of following you. Eh?" "No, they'd let me alone. There's one way it's to be done, guv'nor." "Name it." "A barrer, with or without a moke." "And on the barrow?" "Flowers in pots, all a'blowin' and a'growin'." "Capital," I said, admiringly. "How much would the stock-in-trade cost?" "The barrer and moke could be 'ired by the day. Yer'd go as fur as a moke, guv'nor, wouldn't yer? It's killin' work draggin' a barrer full o' flower pots up and down 'ill. There's 'Ampstead way, now. Think o' wot it means, from Coven' Garden to 'Ampstead 'Eath." "I'd go as far as a moke, Jack." His face brightened. "And the flowers would cost?" "A thick 'un 'd do it, guv'nor, and I don't know but wot it wouldn't pay." "Let us hope it will. Here's twenty-five shillings to set you up." I gave him the money and my address, and telling him to call upon me at the end of the week, or earlier if he had anything to communicate, I bade him good day--with an impression that he was really pleased at the prospect of earning an honest livelihood. As he himself had pathetically said, such a life as his wasn't all beer and skittles. Let me state here why I was so anxious with respect to his allusion to his mother which, according to Jack, was made by Louis during his quarrel with Maxwell. The apparently unimportant words, "My mother shall be done with you," assumed intense significance when placed side by side with the information volunteered by Maxwell a fortnight afterwards, that John Fordham's stepmother was dead. Jack, being unacquainted with Louis' family connections, could not have invented Louis' mother--therefore the words were certainly spoken by Louis, establishing without a shadow of a doubt that at that time his mother was living. Only a fortnight intervened before Maxwell declared that she was dead. I dismiss the hypothesis that the woman--I will not call her a lady--died during the interval. Setting that aside, I come face to face with the question, "For what reason did Maxwell wish John Fordham to believe that his stepmother was dead?" I was fairly puzzled; I could find no answer to the question.